POSaBIT Inc., a Seattle-headquartered fintech company that provides digital currency payment solutions for industries that lack access to traditional banking and financial services, has announced that it has raised $1.5 million in funding from the Seattle community of angel investors, and New York based Digital Currency Group.

Founders Jon Baugher and Ryan Hamlin aim to enable industries to operate safely, transparently, and effectively by providing access to banking and other financial services. POSaBIT’s digital currency payment solution brings strong compliance, transparency, and safety to industries such as state legalized cannabis retailers, that may be limited having to operate as ‘cash only’ businesses. By encrypting transactional information in the blockchain, POSaBIT is able to establish a strong audit trail, detect money laundering behaviour, and check for OFAC violations, in order to support the needs of regulatory and law enforcement institutions in highly regulated industries.

Currently, over 25 stores in the state of Washington have used the POSaBIT platform to provide payment solutions to their customers, and those stores have so far processed more than $2million in sales via digital currencies. In addition, stores that have implemented the POSaBIT payment solution have reported a notable increase in average spend by consumers paying via bitcoin instead of cash.

Founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, Barry Silbert noted: “We see the use of digital currencies as a payment rail growing in industries which have had challenges accessing traditional banking services in the past, and are excited to bring POSaBIT into our global network of companies to help them grow their product and offering across a number of industry verticals.”

Baugher and Hamlin remarked: ”We are delighted to have the strategic investment support of DCG, and to be a part of their global investment portfolio of leading bitcoin and blockchain companies. Securing the backing of DCG will allow us to execute and innovate faster, in order to support the needs of our customers and partners.”

Based near Windsor, England, Matthew Warner is an enthusiast for innovative, cutting edge technologies. He is a B.Eng. graduate in engineering with honors from the University of Warwick and also holds an PGCE in education degree. Matthew is a member of Mensa.